I do a little work for the varsity football team helping film the games. I am always at the top of the press box. So, for away games, I am sitting just above all of the fans of the opponent we are playing.

We have played schools all over the Phoenix valley. I have noticed two interesting things about crowds:

1) The better the football team, the better the fans are to the opponents and referees. Last year when we played Saguaro, who won the state championship, we were winning for a little while. But there was never any booing the police, never any booing our team, etc. I overheard people talk about how the team needed to perform better.

2) Sadly, the worst fans I have had to sit in the middle of are from schools that have really high LDS populations. This weekend at Queen Creek was probably the worst I have been around. (The JV team(s) weren't any better. From the coaches down to the fans, they yelled at our players, constantly badgered and screamed at the referees, and the fans would often yell at their own coaches as if they could see something the coaches wouldn't know.

Prior to that, the worst I had sat in was at the American Leadership Academy in Gilbert. I was really surprised at the poor sportsmanship there. From yelling at the referees the entire game, people yelling at our coaches sitting in the press box, to cheering when players were injured.

Our school doesn't treat referees that well, either. There are families who have been thrown out of basketball games, etc. This year, at the parent's meeting, the admin made it very clear they were not going to deal with our parents treating referees or other players poorly.

Like I said, I don't hear hardly any referee booing when we play schools in Scottsdale, Glendale, South Mountain, etc. It really is just in the LDS areas of town. But at least at our school, it isn't necessarily the LDS parents who are the problem.

Just something that popped into my mind when I read the post below.